Fed with Copper
by lealila
Summary: "Heroes don't exist and even if they did I wouldn't be one," Sherlock says, maybe too quickly, and John can only try and disagree. Fifty glimpses into the series. Canon compliant, possible spoilers.


"_**valiant" and "just" are deliberately similar. possible spoilers. title from t. s. eliot's "the wasteland."**_

_**mostly focuses on john and sherlock, but includes other characters.**_

_Fed with Copper_

_heroes don't exist and even if they did, i wouldn't be one, sherlock says maybe too quickly and john can only try and disagree. fifty glimpses into the series. one sentence prompts._

**+ quirks**

They become friends under twenty-four hours, but it takes _months_ for them to get used to living in the same flat: especially Sherlock's need to experiment on body parts.

**+ quarrel**

"There are _fingers_ in the drawer!"; "I'm going to save the world!"

**+ walk**

One of his worst fears is forgetting how to walk.

**+ waste/wasteland**

He wakes up—again—surprised to find not Afghanistan's desert sand, but London's ugly wallpaper.

**+ war**

Sherlock does not know what war is like despite calling London a battlefield; John never wants him to know, and so, does not correct him even if he should.

**+ balloon**

"Anderson is a skinny balloon," Sherlock says dismissively and Lestrade agrees absently; Anderson just scowls.

**+ question**

"_What_ are you doing?" Sherlock hears John ask him for the 259th time since they first met, just three months ago.

**+ sordid**

Moriarty places the bomb vest on him and he has to suppress a shudder.

**+ smirk**

"I don't have a heart, remember?"

**+ sarcasm**

"Just like I don't have a brain?"

**+ wishes**

"If wishes were fishes..." Sherlock mutters about his case and does not hear Molly whisper "then I'd be your queen."

**+ nowhere**

Molly gets deep wanderlust sometimes, but she does not understand why: after all, where would she go?

**+ neutral**

Sherlock thinks neutrality is a lie: how can one be _neutral_ when _everyone _has an opinion?

**+ jester**

John stares at him a long time afterwards before he finally speaks, "Was that a joke?"

**+ breaking**

The wound is minor, treatable, and yet Sherlock never wants to see John in pain again no matter how small.

**+ worry**

The worst part of having a flat mate, a partner, a friend, is the constant...not _fear_, but that feeling that if they aren't fast enough, they won't have a flat mate, a partner, a friend.

**+ waltzing**

He has never been a dancer—never even stored any information about the sport—so when Moriarty tells him to dance, naturally, Sherlock disobeys.

**+ balcony**

Sherlock dreams of flying when he sleeps (if he sleeps) and he always wakes on the ground staring up at an audience who claps his performance into oblivion.

**+ jewel**

"Oh, here's one: a jewelry store had—"; "Boring!"

**+ blessing**

Most cases he takes are handed on to him in any sort of fashion and Sherlock grasps them eagerly, always has; _so_, he wonders_, why do I need John to grasp them as well?_

**+ jump**

John hates the unknown—_despises_ it; but when Sherlock drags him into case after case, John does not hesitate—he soon learns to love the thrill.

**+ serenade**

When Sherlock plays the violin, John will sometimes sing along until he falls asleep with music in his dreams.

**+ quiet**

John quickly understands that _quiet_ does not always mean _shut up_.

**+ sojourn**

Sometimes, he just needs a break from Sherlock, just for a little while, and so John goes out on walks with no destination in mind.

**+ solitary**

Because Sherlock is the same way, John never hears any protest.

**+ share**

Despite being best friends, there is little that they share with each other.

**+ jousting**

John enjoys this part of cases the most—when Sherlock speaks with the criminal, getting him or her to squirm with the words he throws at them.

**+ near**

Sherlock and John work best when they work together.

**+ quitting**

Lestrade looks at them with a frown on his face; "You two haven't given up on a case before, have you?"

**+ stupidity**

Sherlock and John stare at each other, a little dumbfounded, before they turn back to Lestrade; "What kind of question is that?" John asks.

**+ just**

Sherlock has never once contemplated what he does and how he goes about doing it—whether it is right or it is wrong, Sherlock will keep fighting because that is all he has left (and John and Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade, but they are who he fights for).

**+ birthday**

Harry calls him for the first time in two years, and her only words are, "Did you forget what day it is?"

**+ whiskey & rum**

Lestrade hates rum, but he never passes up good whiskey.

**+ weddings**

"So," Lestrade asks John, trying to make polite conversation, "are you married?"

**+ wonder**

Sherlock's deducing never ceases to amaze him.

**+ bias**

John wonders why most everyone sees Sherlock as an arse when he really isn't one: just a show-off.

**+ natural**

Sherlock is a natural show-off and corrects anyone who tells him otherwise.

**+ nuance**

Sherlock notices everything from a glance, but John knows he cannot understand everything at a glance.

**+ virtuous**

"I fight for the side of the angels, but that does not mean I am one."

**+ soliloquy**

John sometimes compares Sherlock to Hamlet and wonders how accurate he is.

**+ whimsy**

John, despite what he complains otherwise_, _does not want Sherlock to grow up, truly.

**+ horizon**

John tries not keep his mind on the past when the present is much more interesting, but when he sleeps, his mind does not take this into effect.

**+ valiant**

John has never once contemplated what he does and how he goes about doing it—whether it is right or it is wrong, John will keep fighting because that is all he has left (and Sherlock and Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade, but they are who he fights for).

**+ victory**

They do not understand _winning_ so much as they understand _completing._

**+ burning**

Moriarty promised to burn the heart out of him, and even standing, watching John, on the roof of St. Bart's Sherlock still feels his heart beating.

**+ breathing**

"I'm a doctor, I'm a doctor..." John moans his friend's wrist limp in his grasp.

**+ bane**

"Heroes don't exist, and even if they did, I wouldn't be one," Sherlock says, maybe too quickly, and John can only try and disagree.

**+ sorrow**

(John _had_ felt a heartbeat, but it is not until later (when he opens his eyes) that he realizes it was just a dream: Sherlock isn't coming back.)

**+ belief**

Lestrade once calls them heroes; John and Sherlock exchange a glance before saying, simultaneously, "Heroes don't exist."

**+ defeat**

They also do not understand what losing is: Sherlock Holmes and John Watson do not stop until the case is closed and the criminals locked away in prison; this is what they were born to do.


End file.
